1. Technical Field
The technical field relates generally to generation and presentation of online media and, more particularly, to systems and methods that associate metadata with media.
2. Background Discussion
There are a wide variety of conventional approaches to associating metadata with online media. These approaches include file-level association in which metadata is associated with an entire media file and portion-level association in which metadata is associated with identified portions of the media file. Conventional technology allows a user to perform file-level association with relative ease. However, portion-level association requires a more careful review of the online media, so that the user may identify which portions of the media file to associate with the metadata. In both cases, where user wishes to associate metadata that exists elsewhere (e.g., a separate file), the user must locate the metadata prior to establishing the association. Examples of the types of metadata that are often associated with online media include documents, news articles, advertisements, thumbnails, images, hyperlinks to related media file content, hyperlinks to other portions of the same media file, hyperlinks of related text content, and embedded textual content.
After the association has been established, many online media players will present the metadata to a viewer during playback of the online media. For example, a professor at an educational institution may produce a marked up a series of online video lectures with resources that will enhance students' understanding of the subject area. This might include embedded definitions of terms, links to on-line documents that relate to particular topics discussed in a lecture, or cross-references to sections of other lectures in a series. Having these resources appear at the appropriate time during the lecture playback will enhance their usefulness.
Or, a business may publish on its web site promotional videos which discuss a number of different products. As each product is discussed, it would benefit the consumer to be able to access product-specific documentation, press releases, news articles, and usage stories. The viewer of the promotional video would then be able to interact with the video playback much like a web page, following hyperlinks to these related resources at the appropriate times during playback.